Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has been accused of ‘showing our hand’ to ISIS fanatics holding hostage a British aid worker after admitting the Government did not know where he was.

Mr Hammond said the SAS was unable to mount a rescue operation to save Alan Hemming because ‘we don't know where he is’. He said it would be a ‘different story’ if the Government did know.

But the former head of the Army Lord Dannatt said he was ‘surprised’ by Mr Hammond's remarks.

He told the Telegraph: ‘I am quite surprised by him saying that. At the public level, not to have commented in that way would have kept uncertainty in the minds of terrorists. They would have remained concerned.

‘He could have said privately to the family that we're doing all we can, but please keep that to yourself because we would rather the other side did not have the information.

‘Not to have revealed our hand as openly might have been a different course of action to take. He was trying to be open and helpful, but it might have been better to say that to the family privately. He would appear to have shown our hand.’

Mr Hammond's remarks came after David Cameron vowed to ‘hunt down’ the fanatics which killed British hostage David Haines.

Mr Haines became the first Briton to be murdered by a man believed to be the ‘British’ terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’, who has previously beheaded two American journalists.

In the footage, released on Saturday night, the terrorists threaten to murder 47-year-old Mancunian Mr Henning.

Mr Hammond was yesterday asked why the SAS cannot simply mount a raid to rescue Mr Henning, he replied: ‘Because we don’t know where he is. It’s as simple as that.

‘If we knew where he was we would be able to look at all sorts of options. We have considered every possible option to support kidnap victims, both British and others. If we knew where they were it would be a different story.'

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Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the SAS could not launch a rescue mission for captive Alan Hemming - because the Government did not know where he was

He added: ‘We understand Mr Henning’s family are going through hell. We are doing everything we can to protect him but they understand the limitations of our abilities and that we are dealing with a very barbaric organisation whose values are completely different from ours.’

Mr Hammond was speaking after a summit in Paris where Europe and Arab states joined the US in pledging to fight Isil ‘by any means’.

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It is not the first time Lord Dannatt and Mr Hammond have publicly disagreed over Syria.

Three weeks ago, Mr Hammond firmly rejected the suggestion by the former chief of the general staff that Britain and the US should have ‘a conversation’ with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad because they would need his approval for a bombing campaign in Syria.

The US yesterday began its expanded bombing campaign in Iraq as General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would consider recommending US military advisers – Special Forces – joining attacks, a move that would place American boots on the ground nearly three years after they pulled out. The US already has an estimated 1,600 military personnel in Iraq.

Hostage: Alan Henning was captured just minutes after he arrived in Syria to help with an aid convoy

Gen Dempsey said the US was not preparing to unleash a ‘shock and awe’ campaign of overwhelming airstrikes in Syria against IS fighters, but would ‘degrade’ IS’s capabilities.

US and UK intelligence have been working ‘indirectly’ with Syrian officials in the hunt for jihadi leaders and their hostages in Raqqa, IS’s operational headquarters. The city is the focus of a massive intelligence gathering operation, involving drone spy planes, electronic monitoring and surveillance.